My personality leans toward enjoying the clarity of the black-and-white, right-and-wrong, Tennessee-and-Alabama things in life.  If you say you are an Alabama fan, you have made your choice and therefore, I don’t desire anything that you have chosen in your life.  I joke...well, kind of.  There is something within me that lives for clarity and decisiveness.  Looking back and regretting decisions doesn’t happen often for me.  Even in stupid mistakes and bad decisions, I have the feeling that they are what they are, so lets move on.  As you might be able to see, this can be a good trait, but it can also bring about a tendency to run over people or not listen.  The only time I really look back and regret decisions are the ones that potentially burn bridges with others.  This personality of mine unfortunately was unhindered for a good portion of my life, running over and bulldogging many dear friends and co-workers.  When I reflect now, I can see how I burned many bridges with others. 

That statement, “Burning Bridges”, for many of us has always had a negative context, indicating things happening to the point of a relationship being severed.  I also held this view until a couple of weeks ago when my incredible wife sent me a new song by Johnnyswim, called Bridges.  Here are few lines:

So here we find ourselves arms deep in a wishing well
Holding to love, a love that's ours
Steady we've kept our eye clear from the exit sign
Knowing that fear can feel like doubt

Oh oh oh, no use in staying safe
Oh oh oh, it just gets in the way

Let's burn the bridges down
Let's burn the bridges down
Light 'em up, no turnin' around
No escape through the ashes now
Oh let's burn the bridges down
Oh let's burn the bridges down
Light 'em up, no turnin' around
No escape through the ashes now
Let's burn the bridges down
Let's burn the bridges down

Light 'em up, they just get in the way
Strike a match anytime, it'll turn into flame
Say goodbye, I know I've said all mine
The love that we keep is the shelter we find
Light 'em up, they just get in the way
Strike a match anytime, it'll turn into flame
Say goodbye, I know I've said all mine

Songwriters: James Ryan Ho / Abner Pedro Ramirez / Amanda Sudano Ramirez

Bridges lyrics © Sony/ATV Countryside, Miss Grace Windsor, Pedro Devoe Music

Needless to say my wife is amazing and the concept of being fully “in” with no plan B in a marriage is totally appropriate, but then that song took on a whole new meaning for me.  The Lord revealed it to me this way: Jesus calls for everything.  Full surrender!  God has spoken and I have said yes so . . . no use in staying safe, it just gets in the way!

So the rest of this blog is me striking a match in a public way.

• God has called us back to the original design of what the Church is supposed to have been. 

• Selah Memphis is more than just a name to identify us.  It is our statement to our city known for striving in its own strength.  The statement is PAUSE, to listen to Him.  BELONG only to Him.  RESPOND only in Him.

• Home church isn’t a fad or a church growth method.  It is the design.  We are and will become a network of home churches that will always focus on intimate, transparent relationships.

• We have no need for small groups.  Try to tell a family that they need small groups.  It simply isn’t a need because of the family dynamic that already exists.

• We have stop going to church.  We have to stop saying this.  But more importantly, we have to stop thinking this way.  Any Christian would quickly clarify that they understand their church is not THE church and that church isn’t a building you go to, but the fact is we don’t actually believe this important distinction.  We say “going to church” and that simple cultural norm has soaked down deeply into our opinions and behaviors.  Pastors make statements on a stages in front of crowds of people telling them every week that “church is not the four walls of this building, but rather the people in the building”. But do you see that we only say that inside those four walls to those same people every week?  It’s a room full of people we don’t really know and yet we’re identifying ourselves as “church” together.  Of course we should gather for worship and prayer at certain times, but that isn’t “time for church.”  The church is intended to be a family, not a group of people who gather in the same room at scheduled times. When is family family?

• We are not looking for a permanent location to be our own.  I don’t need or want an office, we don’t need or want to have a certain part of our city we identify with, we don’t need or want a base of operations. This isn’t a reaction to “low numbers”.  It is the opposite.  This isn’t a reaction to “low giving” or not enough money.  It is the opposite.  The plan isn’t an equation.  The plan isn’t a business model.  The plan isn’t looking for success.  The plan isn’t calculable.  Our plan is just to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit!  If we take it upon ourselves to add to that plan, the Spirit of God gets suppressed.

• Programing ministries as the method of healing, freedom, or connection is brain-washing Christians.  Sure - there are programmed ministries God uses to accomplish His will and that can be used by Him bring healing, freedom or connection to our lives, but these tend to have a single-generation cycle.  God, of course, can use anything and everything, but when we go back to yesterday’s manna to fill our stomachs, although it will appease our appetites, it will end up creating a sickness that will prevent me from eating tomorrow’s manna.  We use church programing to make it easier to grow deeper in our relationship with The Father, but the unfortunate thing is - just like yesterday’s manna, growth isn’t repeatable or even the same for everyone. 

• Pastors are not to be Moses.  Jesus has delivered us once and for all; we don’t need another Moses. So the role of the pastor is to cheer on and resource those God has placed before him.  We have turned the role of the Pastor into the one who approves or disapproves everything pertaining to the ministries of the Church; that is not what God intended.  In fact, that was the practice of the Pharisees who Jesus challenged so often.

• The Cross and the Bible are the tools of our relationship with the Father but these things themselves are NOT our relationship with Him.  The work of the cross is accomplished.  It’s done. So sin has been dealt with.  The Bible teaches me the heartbeat and character of God and how I am to live my life.  But my relationship with the Father is so much more than these two things.  In heaven, I won’t need these things because of my face to face relationship with Him.  Paul tells us to live as citizens of Heaven here on Earth and two of the things that will be different for me there is how much less I will talk about my sin and that I will physically be face to face with the Lord.

• Weekend event driven worship services have become like spiritual porn.  To create an environment of self indulgence under the guise of “church” is scary.  These environments create false convictions such as “they have too much fog” or “the music is too loud” or “they talked too much about _____”.  These type of complaints are not examples of the problem, but are symptoms of a much bigger problem.  We have altered church as Jesus intended it to be into something we get pleasure out of and we call it conviction.  The early church spilled their blood on the colosseum floors based on conviction but these convictions, and I assure you - those convictions had nothing to do with their own pleasure.

• I am called to love, not sell, Jesus.  Confrontational evangelism, church billboards, mass marketing, and creating platform has nothing to do with the heartbeat of our Savior.  Jesus lived in deep, transparent relationships and loved all He encountered.  The only people He confronted were the religious.

Think about that last statement, Jesus confronted the religious harshly but in love.  Jesus burned religious bridges.  So these statements and more are me trying to severe the ties I have to the religious.  I am not going back.  Anne and I will continue to lead our kids down this road and we hope to encourage you all through this.  My kids will grow up in a context of understanding that the Church as Jesus established it can be lived out today.  Jesus is King and I am a part of His Bride and I can’t wait for whatever is next because I’m done with safe.